Stocks Continue To See Considerable Strength After Early Rally - U.S. Commentary

After moving notably higher early in the session, stocks continue to see considerable strength in mid-day trading on Wednesday. With the upward move, the Dow has reached its best intraday level in almost a month.

In recent trading, the major averages reached new highs for the session. The Dow is up 312.33 points or 1.2 percent at 25,947.34, the Nasdaq is up 148.24 points or 2 percent at 7,524.20 and the S&P 500 is up 39.88 points or 1.5 percent at 2,795.33.

The strength on Wall Street comes as the results of the highly anticipated midterm elections on Tuesday came largely in line with expectations.

Democrats are projected to retake control of the House for the first time since 2010, as Democratic candidates managed to flip a number of suburban districts across the country.

Control of the House will give Democrats subpoena power, potentially leading to numerous investigations of President Donald Trump's administration.

House Democrats will also play a much larger role if Trump hopes to achieve any major legislative accomplishments in the next two years.

Meanwhile, Democrats did not fare as well as in the Senate, as Republicans appear poised to expand their majority in the upper chamber.

Republican candidates won Democratic Senate seats in Indiana, Missouri, and North Dakota and are leading in tight races in Florida, Arizona, and Montana.

The GOP had been seen as likely to maintain control of the Senate due to the tough map faced by Democrats, who were defending 26 of the 35 seats on the ballot.

With Republicans expanding their majority, Trump will likely have an easier time pushing through more controversial judicial nominees.

Despite Republicans losing control of the House, Trump described the night as a "tremendous success" in a post on Twitter.

Sector News

Software stocks continue to turn in some of the market's best performances on the day, with the Dow Jones Software Index surging up by 3.9 percent. With the jump, the index has reached its best intraday level in nearly a month.

Substantial strength also remains visible among healthcare stocks, as reflected by the 2.6 percent spike by the Dow Jones Health Care Index.

Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved higher on the day. While the German DAX Index advanced by 0.8 percent, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is and the French CAC 40 Index surged up by 1.1 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved to the upside ahead of tomorrow's Fed announcement. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 3 basis points at 3.184 percent.